Monday, 26 May 2014

1) I'm currently working on a new graphic novel series, "Wheetago War", and I'm so excited about the Theytus Books' sci fi and spec fiction anthology coming out with Neal McLeod as the editor. I have a story in there called "Skull.Full.Of.Rust" and Neal just sent me great edit notes so I'm hoping it's ready to go. I have three new books coming out: "Three Feathers" (Portage and Main), a g. novel on restorative justice; "Whistle" a novel with Pearson Canada and a new short story collection, "Night Moves" withEnfield & Wizenty so I'm gearing up for all of these beauties--and preparing for rewrite notes any day on all of them.

2) I always try and put one teaching I've been given that I worry the world is forgetting in all of my works. I was so lucky to grow up in Fort Smith, NWT where storytelling is greatly respected, and I love stories so much, so if I can put something in a story that was passed on to me by my family or the elders I adore, I am happy.

Thou Art a Vineyard (Georgian: შენ ხარ ვენახი, transliterated: Shen Khar Venakhi) is a medieval Georgian hymn. The text is attributed to King Demetrius I of Georgia (1093-1156). The composer of the music is unknown. Supposedly Demetrius I wrote it during his confinement as a monk in the David Gareja Monastery. The hymn is dedicated to Georgia and the patronage of the Virgin Mary; it is also a prayer of praise to Mary in the Georgian Orthodox Church.

Thou Art a Vineyard is usually sung by a choir without instrumental accompaniment and is a classic example of Georgian choral music. The hymn is characterized as very polyphonic and is representative of the late Medieval traditions of the Georgian Renaissance.

ENGLISH translation:You are a vineyard newly blossomed.Young, beautiful, growing in Eden,(A fragrant poplar sapling in Paradise.)(May God adorn you. No one is more worthy of praise.)You yourself are the sun, shining brilliantly.

"Maybe I shouldn't have smiled ...
But I was on holidays in a small town close to Algonquin Park. While I and my
family were enjoying the beautiful environment of this region, I was also
looking for stories and histories of the Aboriginal people of the area - after
all, the park is named after one of their nations, the Algonqins.

However, I did not find anything - except a stereotypical display of
pre-contact life in the Visitor's Centre (which is very spacious and tells a
lot of other stories) and this life-size figure (together with another one of
"an Indian" in a canoe) in front of a craft store for tourists.

So in the midst of total ABSENCE
of the real people and their real stories about how they still have to fight
for land they had never signed away (like the Algonqin Park) I found the
PRESENCE of images that relegates Aboriginal people to the past, to the
imaginary and the exotic, that commercializes their culture and dehumanizes the
people.

Algonqin means "allies," and the Algonqins were allies of the British
in 1812, but instead of being rewarded for their efforts they had and still
have to fight for their rights.

It is hi/stories like these that need to be told in Canadian educational
institutions. This is why I teach in Native Studies."

Tuesday, 13 May 2014

Rebirth Paddle - Blue Heron and Camas Flower Design

View artist biography and more artworks.Artist Statement: The Story of the Rebirth Paddle:In our culture we were taught never to quarrel or fight with each other.We were taught to always help each other and be peaceful with each other.One day Blue Heron and Camas were playing and they got into an awful fight.They were calling each other bad names and hollering at each other.An Elder came across them and said Stop. You are not listening to our teachings.You know words are powerful and you are using them in anger and in hurtful ways.Blue Heron I will make you a bird. You must live in both the water and the land. Your job will be to help troubled Spirits to the other side.Camas you will become a flower and your roots will be used for food for our people. As a flower you will gift our Spirit with peace.You will both be a sign of rebirth for all people.Blue Heron and Camass live not as people now but as a bird and flower because they didn’t practise their teachings.

Top photo is a glimpse of mama nature this spring, in TO, which reminded me of previous mama nature photos-- myself rescuing a teddy bear, Kelly Benning & Jane Marston at a charming cafe, all taken at our old lady hunting gathering in Yellowknife YT, and, many of the mothers and grandmothers-- all writers and artists-- gathered near Likely BC, for the mothers journey writing retreat with Maria Campbell.

Admittedly, i am guessing about who took which photo,

except in the case of the first, but these are my best guesses.

Like the image below, they are "from the archives," capture some of the beauty & joyfullness of mothers' true nature, mothers in springtime, etc.

Grandma Harris, Margaret Harris, taught many women life skills and supported our flourishing, through Traditional Mothers programs and dance troupes and freelance mentoring relationships. Alongside other gifted woman mentors, she nourished that part of the urban community who had taken on the mother role, and who wished for some guidance in connecting more deeply with self, role, community, and indigeneity. In a rare recent visit, we spoke mostly about books, writers, and saints, and she did reflect for a time on dance as cultural expression. She told me that the Goose Dance, which she taught the mothers at Indian Homemakers Association (as was), was one that she had learned from her elders, from her relatives, in situ in northern Manitoba, way back in the day. Although I would be hard-pressed to show you the complete dance today, more than a glimmer of it, it was my favourite of all the dances shared: A swirling femininity and a sacred celebration of the self, in community.

Friday, 9 May 2014

It was my pleasure to meet Linda Crosfield at the recent Cascadia Poetry gathering. Her warm and earthy poems were one of the many highlights of the gathering. Above is a sampling from her 2014 chapbook, Rodeo Nights, bound in hand-painted Amate bark paper from Mexico, where this collection was published (La Manzanilla del Mar, to be precise).

Many of the poems are prefaced with an epigraph drawn from George Bowering's 1970 chapbook, Imago No 12, Sitting in Mexico. Drawn in by the exquisite covers, I stayed to enjoy the poems.

Linda's passion for poetry extends to a line of chapbook productions, NIB (Nose in Book) Press, based in Castlegar BC (most of the time). Rodeo Nights is one sample, and this 2013 collection of new Mexico meditations, some forty years on from the Imago collection, is another:

Of this recent collection by George Bowering, she writes:

In Los Pájaros de TenacatitaGeorge looks at life in general and Mexican life in particular—its birds, its kids, its visiting gringos—with depth, compassion and characteristic Bowering humour. Written in La Manzanilla del Mar, Mexico in January 2013, each of the poems is a fulcrum which consists of six lines divided into couplets. Cuban poet, Pablo Medina, describes how he came up with the form here.

Mayday began for me as she usually does, making sure everyone gets up on time, helping with lunches, and (an annual event) wishing my youngest son Jules a very happy birthday. Not long after the kids went to school, things took a turn toward the unusual, and persisted in that vein for a five day period.

There was a knock on the door, and the moment i opened, a poetry reading commenced, there on my porch: Heidi Greco, performing "The Power that Belies Her Beauty" (Siren Tatoo: A Poetry Triptych, Anvil, 1994). I was completely and utterly enchanted, and so began my experience of Cascadia Poetry Festival, with one who had been to Cascadia I.

We had such an enormously positive experience at the Cascadia Poetry Festival, perhaps the poached pics (links to sources below) will suggest some of the diversity of inputs and experiences. I was able to get to know many west coast Canpo practitioners better than i had before, and to meet and greet many USAmericoPo practitioners, too.

What drew us together was a vision that transcends boundaries: from geologic underpin to the weather, from geopolitic to geopoetic: it was a wonderful feast of show and tell, from panel-discussions and debriefs to "open and democratic" poetry readings, high school visit for the Force Field poets, and much more.

Thursday, 1 May 2014

Imagine an experiment set in some Idea of Northwhere a jaded overtly self-important poet of First Nations’ extract is sent into exile from his West Coast ancestral seat after a gripping Tribal Council and dropped down in a bitterly cold prairie city in Canada ... (read in full)

I was delighted to find A Night for the Lady in the outstanding company of other world-adjusting or world-balancing poetic utterances, by Garry Thoma Morse. His series is published on Jacket2 website, and well worth the visit!